It's official: I'm to Oversee the fortress for the year 508 in the stead of the genial but unlucky Melkorp Goldthunder. Wonderful. I think a few more gem windows for the Quarters are in orddddddd----(illegible)

I live.

Thanks for the loan, Turkey: I promise to take good care of this body.

The whole of the original first level is now a refuse pile. Our overtaxed butcher's shop is finally uncluttered, and more are being built. If Battlefailed has an inexhaustable resource, it is bones.

The Spring is mild. In dismantling the old levers, I only managed to inadvertantly flood two, three rooms at most before our masons could react. Forgotten beasts roam the caverns, vainly seeking a way in. The legendary hoard increases. Our steel-clad soldiers grow ever stronger. By the stone, 508 will be a bbbbbbbbb-- (illegible)

He he he. Yeah, it almost looks done... alas... those who are in your teens, hold on until your twenties... those in your twenties, your thirties... others, cling to life as you are able...It should be pretty fun though.

The spring was peaceful, productive. Why couldn't I remember any of it? This latest batch of whip wine must be getting the better of me, I thought: I'd suddenly find myself in odd corners of Upper Battlefailed, no idea how I got there. Robocorn stopped me to say how much he liked the new Battlefailed maps that hang in the corridors... but who hung them? I thought to confide in my diary, strange new entries in a hand not my own...is it possible? If I am possessed, where is my arftifact? Does -- oh no not aggggggggggg (illegible)

Summer, Overseer Melkorp reporting.

Well, everyone's getting a bed and a cabinet. I caused, or rather Turkey and I caused a smallish wall to be erected around the original entrance, just a modest zombie-free slice of the surface to call our own. But that's not what I want to tell you.

A score of macemen and their captain, bow drawn, riding a fell beast. It seems I'm to have the unique pleasure of avenging my own death. The Earthen Scholars and Earthen Gloves are quickly sent to the entrance, with it's six new cage traps. The plan being: let the cage traps fall on 3 to 6 of them, then the counterattack. While the goblins clear the field of zombie horses, an unlucky kobold thief is quickly dealt with, and then all is ready.

The goblins decisively advance. Zefon Whippuzzles enters a martial trance, breaks ranks, and charges straight for the Goblin Chief on his Rutherer. Sigh. Well, when in Battlefailed, as the adage goes. Both squads charge. Bolts and silver maces alike bounce harmlessly off of shining dwarven steel. Goblin limbs arc through the air. Beautiful. Only their mounted leader escapes alive.

You know what they say about the optimal temperature of vengeance? Absolutely true. Another pair of kobold thieves are anticlimactically dispatched.

Sigun Hamerack, Ingish Letterseared, and squad leader Athel kill a kobold each. Krimson II gets one, and Zefon Whippuzzles decapitates two goblins and earns the name the Clear Craft of Beaks. But the battle goes to Rakust Battlearrows, with 8 goblins slain (they're calling him the Creepy Omen of Thunder, excellent).

Ingish Letterseared broke an elbow, leg, and a couple of ribs and had to be carried down by Zathel, but Doc Goden is with him now. I imagine he'll wear both gauntlets into battle next time. In celebration I have arrrrrrrrrrr (illegible)

He he he. Yeah, it almost looks done... alas... those who are in your teens, hold on until your twenties... those in your twenties, your thirties... others, cling to life as you are able...It should be pretty fun though.

So I'm going to do my Battlefailed and Cavebrands turns simultaneously, using the same character. They're my two favorite succession forts and my turn came up for both simultaneously, so this seemed like a logical step. My hope is that fans of Battlefailed might become fans of Cavebrands and read each other's stories from the beginning: well worth it.

He he he. Yeah, it almost looks done... alas... those who are in your teens, hold on until your twenties... those in your twenties, your thirties... others, cling to life as you are able...It should be pretty fun though.

Current Spare Time Fiction Project: (C) 2010 http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=63660.0Disclaimer: I never take cases online for ethical reasons. If you require an attorney; you need to find one licensed to practice in your jurisdiction. Never take anything online as legal advice, because each case is different and one size does not fit all. Wants nothing at all to do with law.